Asia’s hottest kitchens attract world’s top chefs

Red-hot chefs make the world’s most exclusive restaurants and some of the hottest names in the kitchen are wielding their magical knives in Asia. A galaxy of Michelin stars, the food lovers’ equivalent to the Oscars, is now sprinkled over Asian capitals; Tokyo has more three star restaurants even than Paris, once the undisputed culinary capital of the globe.

But it’s not just Tokyo, other Asian kitchens are also catching on to celebrity chef branding to pull in the booming region’s dollars, yuan and yen. Singapore, long famous for its Asian street cuisine like chilli crab and chicken rice, is fast becoming recognised for a growing roster of celebrity western chefs.

French master Joel Robuchon, US-based Wolfgang Puck and Australia’s Tetsuya Wakuda have all lent their names to restaurants in the city-state. “The image of Singapore as a food city is becoming more pronounced over the years, and I’ve had many overseas friends becoming more interested to visit Singapore as a result of what’s happening here,” Wakuda told AFP.